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BioProduction 2008

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Science 17 July 1998:
Vol. 281. no. 5375, p. 330
DOI: 10.1126/science.281.5375.330
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News Focus

EVOLUTION:
The First Codon and Its Descendants

Elizabeth Pennisi

NEW YORK--A biophysicist looked for common features in messenger RNA molecules to determine which of the genetic code's "words," or codons--the triplets of bases that code for amino acids--came first. He concludes that the first word was GCU (guanine, cytosine, and uracil) and calculates how GCU might have evolved into the current set of 61 codons that specify the 20 amino acids.

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)